Identifying Predictors for Minimum Dietary Diversity and Minimum Meal Frequency in Children Aged 6–23 Months in Uganda

Abstract

Adequate complementary foods contribute to good health and growth in young children. However, many countries are still off-track in achieving critical complementary feeding indicators, such as minimum meal frequency (MMF), minimum dietary diversity (MDD) and minimum acceptable diet (MAD). In this study, we used the 2016 Ugandan Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) data to assess child feeding practices in young children aged 6–23 months. We assess and describe complementary feeding indicators (MMF, MDD and MAD) for Uganda, considering geographic variation. We construct multivariable logistic regression models—stratified by age—to evaluate four theorized predictors of MMF and MDD: health status, vaccination status, household wealth and female empowerment. Our findings show an improvement of complementary feeding practice indicators in Uganda compared to the past, although the MAD threshold was reached by only 22% of children. Children who did not achieve 1 or more complementary feeding indicators are primarily based in the northern regions of Uganda. Cereals and roots were the foods most consumed daily by young children (80%), while eggs were rarely eaten. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that health status, vaccination status and wealth were significantly positively associated with MDD and MMF, while female empowerment was not. Improving nutrition in infant and young children is a priority. Urgent nutritional policies and acceptable interventions are needed to guarantee nutritious and age-appropriate complementary foods to each Ugandan child in the first years of life.

Correlates of early child development among children with stunting: A cross‐sectional study in Uganda

“…Dietary intake was based on 24-h recall and dietary diversity was calculated based on the WHO global nutrition monitoring framework operational guidance that recommends consumption of at least five out of eight food groups including breastmilk in past 24 h (WHO, 2017a(WHO, , 2017b. Minimum dietary diversity has been documented to be associated with socioeconomic status in low-income settings (Scarpa et al, 2022). Food security was calculated using the USAID household food insecurity access scale (Coates et al, 2007).…”

Feeding practices, prevalence and factors associated with concurrent wasting and stunting (WaSt) among children under five years attending health facilities in Southwestern Uganda

“…The low proportion (less than 50%) of children who receive the minimum dietary diversity can be explained partly by the low proportion of mothers who bene ted from nutritional counseling noted in this study. Most of the respondents were from rural areas with little access to reliable information about child feeding practices(19) .…”